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Senator Spilka, Natick Delegation Announce Fire Department Grants

December 16, 2009

State Senators Karen Spilka and Scott Brown and and Representative David Linsky have announced that the Natick Fire Department will receive an $80,000 grant in the second round of awards to fire departments from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) discretionary funds set aside specifically to help fire departments address staffing reductions caused by the current recession.

In this second round of grant awards, $11.6 million will be used to rehire laid off firefighters for 85 fire departments across the Commonwealth. The funds will also be used to support additional shift staffing needs.

The fire departments submitted applications to the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS) for the staffing grant program. EOPSS used formulas based on budget, staffing issues and public safety concerns to determine which departments received grants.

Additionally, the Natick Fire Department will receive a $2,992 grant through the Student Awareness of Fire Education (S.A.F.E.) program, awarded by the Massachusetts Department of Public Safety and Security.

The mission of the S.A.F.E. program is to provide students with the information needed to recognize the dangers of fire, including the fire hazards that smoking-related materials pose. The grants give local fire departments the resources so that firefighters can provide fire and life safety programs to students in grades K-12.